posted 7 years ago
Stir fry. Most veggies are delicious this way. I use coconut oil (healthiest), but you could use any oil. Cut veggies in chunks. Add them as you cut them with the toughest ones first (they take longer to soften). When they're a little crunchy and a little tender, add some Braggs Amino Acids (or soy sauce if you prefer - Braggs is healthier and non-gmo), and some Balsamic vinegar (about the same amount of each).
How long you cook is your taste. Some like them fully tender and others more crunchy. For variety, there are many flavors of vinegars you could add. You can also drain and add cans of water chestnuts and/or bamboo shoots. Cashews and sliced almonds are also good in stir fry.
Your choice of veggies: onions, bell peppers of any color, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, kale, cabbage - I've even added fingerling potatoes (although most wouldn't). [Note: zucchini and yellow squash now come in gmo varieties, so if you want to avoid gmo, check the labels or know your sources or buy organic only.]
If you have wild edibles, you could add purslane or lambs quarters or dandelions (any part of the plant).
Another way to prepare the same veggies is baked or grilled with a little butter, Braggs Aminos, and Balsamic vinegar. I use my toaster oven. Split things like zucchin and squash lengthwise, make little cuts to hold the butter, Aminos and vinegar.
You can prepare many squashes and sweet potatoes the same way you would a baked potato by poking holes in it with a fork and baking until tender. Or you can cut squash in half, scoop out the seeds if they're large, make slits and top with butter and brown sugar.
During growing season, bake large zucchini whole that way, cut into cubes, and mix up to 50% squash in your potato salad. I leave peels on, but if you peel them I doubt anyone would notice there was zucchini in the potato salad as it doesn't have much of a flavor itself.
Grated squash or zucchini is made into bread. Cubed winter squash (butternut and other hard varieties) and sweet potatoes can be added to soups and roasts that cook a long time. I use a slow cooker to make home-made soup.
Take a whole chicken and put it in a large (oval) crock pot. Surround it with chunks of onion, diced garlic, carrots cut in chunks, and potatoes sliced into quarters lengthwise. Cover the veggies with water, but not the entire chicken. Season with Italian seasoning (easy way to get the amounts right), salt and pepper.
Set on high and cook until the chicken is tender (leg turns easily) and not pink. Eat the veggies with the sliced white meat or legs or wings if you like. Then, add more water and cook the entire rest of the chicken down into the broth.
This is when you can add lots more raw veggies like diced sweet potatoes, butternut squash, or more white potatoes, carrots, bell peppers, onions, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. Cook until the veggies are tender and you have home-made chicken soup.
Don't eat the bones! You have cooked their goodness into the broth and veggies. To serve to company, you'll have to fish them out. I just eat around them. They should be tender enough that you can feed them to your dog or cat as they won't splinter after all that cooking.
Beets are delicious grated into coleslaw with cabbage and carrots. Or cooked by themselves sliced. But DO NOT put them into soup unless you can stomach eating pink soup.
Greens are delicious once you know how to season them. Any kind of greens including radish tops, carrot tops, beet tops, collards, spinach, wild lambs quarters, kale, etc. can be cooked in water. Add a generous amount of your favorite oil. (I use coconut or olive oil.) Use lots of spices. Italian seasoning works here, too. Add a little brown sugar. Cook until tender.
Left-over greens can be strained almost dry and chopped and then added to pasta sauce. They will soak up the sauce and make it absolutely delicious. Small amounts of greens can also be cooked into the chicken soup mentioned above.
Use the broth you use to cook greens or any other vegetables to cook rice in. That way you don't waste the nutrients. Any veggies that are too tough to stir fry and chop and throw into the soup broth.
Gail Gardner @GrowMap
Small Business Marketing Strategist, lived on an organic farm in SE Oklahoma, but moved where I can plant more trees.
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